"To defend both projects, the El Agitador project and at the same time a political project that does not have to be contaminated by other types of criticism, the best decision is for the colleagues to continue with the web and for me to step aside.". This is how the Podemos councilor in the Cabildo, Carlos Meca, has announced his decision to leave the direction of this satirical website, in which he has been participating for more than a decade.
"El Agitador has been running for twelve years and I believe it has earned a place within what is criticism in Lanzarote," defended Meca, who believes that the website has been immersed in controversies because it was a way to attack him. "It is the only throwing weapon that the president believes he has found to attack me," Meca pointed out on Radio Lanzarote ? Onda Cero, where he recalled both the constant references to El Agitador that Pedro San Ginés has been making in the Plenary Sessions and other criticisms from Coalición Canaria and the Popular Party.
"It is the only thing they have been able to cling to to attack me and Podemos. And when they have been using that website as a political weapon for so long, which is what the president has been doing, both parties suffer. The work of that website, which I don't do alone, suffers, and the political work also suffers," he pointed out to explain his decision to take "a step aside" and disassociate himself from El Agitador, also for the good of the website itself.
"Humor ridicules power and they are terrified of that"
Regarding the future of El Agitador, he specified that it is currently still without activity due to the break they take every year in summer. "The vacations in El Agitador have always been generous, we have not skimped there," Meca joked, adding that the decision to continue will now depend on "the rest of the colleagues" and that it will be made "in the coming weeks." However, he has also defended the need for that satirical project to continue after his departure.
"Power is increasingly aware of the damage that humor does, of how effective it is. Long articles or brainy theses are not necessary. With an image, power is often ridiculed, and that is what they are terrified of. If not, if humor did not have that power to ridicule them with just an image, our friends from CC would not be so belligerent against El Agitador," he stressed.
In addition, he insisted that El Agitador has been "used" as a "weapon" against him, launching criticisms against the satirical website only because "the person who has been directing it until now is in a political position." And for this, he believes that a campaign has been fueled to convey "an image that is not real" about the content it publishes, as he claims can be "perfectly verified just by entering the website."
"The level of shamelessness cries out to heaven"
"It's been twelve years and more than a thousand cartoons have been published. And I can agree that there will be cartoons of better or worse taste, but to label the website as misogynistic, please!" Meca emphasized, who believes that "the level of shamelessness that is being used when criticizing a job cries out to heaven."
In fact, he emphasizes that the greatest criticisms have come from "certain political representatives, some from CC and others from the PP, who have been the most affected" by those cartoons. "What El Agitador shows are their shames and, to try to cover them up, they have dedicated themselves to saying that cartoons were published against women and even against the disabled," he states.
"To avoid all that," he explains that his decision is that from now on "the rest of the colleagues" will continue with a project that he still considers necessary, that of "criticism and denunciation from humor."
"The citizens put us in the Plenary to speak clearly"
Meanwhile, Meca has made it clear that his work will continue exactly the same in the Cabildo and in the Plenary Sessions, where he anticipates that he has no intention of changing his way of doing opposition, despite Pedro San Ginés' announcement that from now on he will "ignore" his interventions and will not answer his questions.
"The citizens put the Podemos councilors in the plenary hall to speak clearly once and for all. To put aside that politically correct language and say things as they are," defended the councilor, insisting that the one who has been "disrespecting" his group, other councilors of the Plenary, Cabildo officials and "all citizens" for years is precisely San Ginés.
In addition, he has denied having dedicated insults to the president such as "scoundrel" or "corrupt" in any plenary session. "I have never called him corrupt. What I have said is that his attitudes give the feeling that he is favoring corrupt interests. If for him that is calling him corrupt, that's his business," he added. Thus, although he affirms that he is aware that this was not "usual" in a plenary session, because "other groups are more complacent and end up doing a somewhat bland opposition", he defends that it is necessary to speak clearly before "a president who skips all the rules of decency, democracy and morality."
In any case, he has reiterated that "it is not true" that he or his group are dedicated to "insulting", as "they are trying to convey" from Coalición Canaria. "It is the president who insults us," he stressed, recalling that in the last plenary session San Ginés called him "obsessed", "spoiled" and "delinquent." However, Meca considers that this is not the problem and that it makes no sense to focus the debate on the forms. "What affects me are not his harsh words. What affects me is what he is doing in the Cabildo," Meca concluded, recalling all the issues that they have been denouncing since the beginning of the legislature.
